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Visual Arts

In this multi level unit we explore the essential elements of painting - line, colour and texture. For students of all ages to succeed in painting they need to be taught the skills of using these three essential elements.

This unit, not only teaches these skills but also produces a stunning set of paintings allowing every student to succeed. Try it with your class - you won’t be disappointed.

Let your students have some online fun with shape and colour at this 'slightly toungue-in-cheek website. Move the mouse to draw and click once to change colour. A masterpiece is guaranteed every time – and you don't have to clean up!

Painting should be treated no differently from any other classroom activity in that we want the children to have success. To help gain this success we first establish some simple routines. These routines are then followed during every painting session.

This unit also provides 5 painting topics and ideas for students to evaluate their work and identify the skills that they need to improve.

This unit introduces students to the wonderful tactile world of clay and deals with the techniques and skills they need to develop to suceed and enjoy this medium. Five major clay projects are provided to develop these techniques and explore the wonderful world of clay.

There is nothing more exciting for students than to build and then fire their clay 'works of art' in a kiln that they have built. This unit provides instructions for building and firing and includes extension activities for students.

In this unit we explore starter activities to intrduce your students to construction ranging from colourful cubes to card free standing sculptures. Using imagination, design techniques and construction, your students can turn their classroom into a vibrant and stimulating environment.

Tie & dye is a resist form of dyeing, which means that patterns are created by preventing colour penetrating the fabric. This unit explores this process and uses dyeing T shirts in a circle pattern to introduce your students to tie and dye techniques.

Have you ever tried Marbling? We outline a step by step process that shows how you and your class can get into one of the most creative and exciting visual art activities your children can experience. Try it. You’ll be hooked.

Even before the computer age and since then - even more so, the logo has become a very important design and branding concept. Students really enjoy working with and understanding the basics of logo design.

Logo design fits perfectly into the Visual Arts strands and this unit provides ideas for teachers to develop their own lessons around the topic of Logo design.

A stimulating unit showing how you can use photography to bring an exciting new dimension to the classroom programme. Using photography provides countless opportunities for developing learning objectives in the English, Arts, Technology, and Health and PhysEd. curricula.

One of the major problems for creative people is that only too often their creative ideas are stolen by other people – often for personal and even commercial gain. Common examples of this can be found in the illegal downloading of music and film from the web. In this unit we use the visual arts context to get important messages about the value of and theft of intellectual property out to other students and the wider community.

Constructing mobiles and stabiles is a very rewarding visual art activitiy for students of all ages. They are imaginatively stimulating and add colour to your classroom and school environment. A mobile is free hanging while a stabile is fixed to a base and can be easily shiften around the room or the school or even outside into the playground where it becomes an outdoor sculpture.

Music – Sound Arts

Starters brings you an extensive, tried and true,music programme consisting of step-by-step, easy to follow, sequential lessons that allows teachers to establish a classroom band in their classroom — perhaps the most rewarding musical experience you can have with your class.The programme comes complete with recorder fingering diagrams, copymaster recorder pictures, ukulele and guitar chord charts and 10 classroom band copymaster music sheets for your band. And the best thing of all — it is designed for the teacher who is not confident in classroom music teaching. More experienced music teachers too will enjoy the graded band charts and will be encouraged to introduce chordal, and tuned and untuned instruments to an existing classroom band.

The programme sequence is as follows: How to teach 1-2 and 4 beat notes; Introducing the recorder as the basis of the band; How to teach the first tunes for the students to play; Introducing harmony parts and the beginning of the band;Introducing chordal instruments such as the ukulele and guitar; Introducing keyboards and tuned and untuned percussion to the band.

Once you have reached this stage, lessons follow a set progression. When you and your students have this established, the classroom band will develop quickly in both skill and confidence. After initial notes and chords have been established, the following patterns are suggested as you move on through the music charts.

Some years it seems that you have a ‘tone deaf’ class. This is entirely unlikely as less than 1% of the population is tone deaf. It is more likely that they have got into bad singing habits over the years and are deficient in listening skills. You can improve your class singing markedly by following these simple steps regularly.

Music is perhaps the one area of the arts curriculum where most teachers claim to be ‘challenged’. The following ideas are designed for both the non musically confident teacher and for a teacher who wishes to add some more zing and zest to an already successful programme.

It allows students to inhabit the exciting world of music. All aspects are applicable to all ages and stages. Some aspects will need to be adapted. There are multiple parts to the programme - use them all - all work.

A simple definition of a polyrhythm is 2 or more rhythms being played against or with each other at the same time. Polyrhythms give music interest, excitement and tension and are wonderful for dance improvisation.

In this unit we explore use and enjoy simple polyrhythms and then we use the rhythms of words, combined with body percussion and movement to create a fantastic machine.

This unit is the first of six major projects in creative music – sound sensitivity. A creative approach to music greatly increases the range of musical experiences we offer our students and sound sensitivity is the core element in this approach.

NB: No formal musical training is needed by teachers to implement this exciting programme.

This culminating project gives suggestions for designing and performing a ‘carnival of sound’ to other classes and parents. A large area such as a school hall should be used but a classroom cleared of furniture or a corridor could also be adequate. Sound environments are constructed around the outside for the audience to be guided through or allowed to explore at their leisure. Always a highlight of a school year!

Related Arts

All art forms, as well as having the ability to stand alone – also have the qualities to enrich each other.

The related arts include music, dance, drama, mime, language and the visual arts. Related arts is also an approach to teaching. It differs from a subject based method as it emphasises connections between aspects of learning.

A class and group project involving the construction of a physical and sound environment to simulate a hall of horrors or a haunted house. Movement, dance and mime activities take place in this environment.

A class and group project to simulate an environment of a city, set some time in the future. The environment will be constructed in the classroom or in a hall or corridor. Movement, dance, drama, and special lighting effects will be part of the environment. Even normal classroom activities can take place in the environment.

A major Related Arts unit where students create a vibrant and exciting environment in the classroom providing a stimulus for many English activities. Mimes and dramatic sequences are enacted in this environment. Music is composed and added to this environment to create atmosphere. The Enchanted Forest is a true adventure in learning.

A class and group related arts project culminating in a dramatic sensory and visual presentation of a journey into deep space as experienced by the crea of a starship on a voyage to discover new planets.

The Arts Units

For personal health and physical development your students need: - 30 minutes of moderate physical activity daily and an additional 20 minutes of vigorous physical exercise on at least 3 days per week In this unit we focus on The Arts curriculum to develop multi - level motivational student activities.

The following activities are designed to help you start out with drama, develop your confidence, and allow students to begin to develop skills in the medium. Choose some from each section in turn – start with individual activities and conclude with pair and group activities.